


Night Terrors

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Series: Holly's Round Seven H/C Bingo Card [11]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Insomnia, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-19 23:49:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7382476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes there's nights where they just can't sleep. They do what they can, but for one of them it may never be enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night Terrors

There's nights where Alec tosses and turns until Eliot rolls over and puts one hand on the back of his head and just says, "Breathe." Where Parker reaches out and threads her fingers through Alec's and says quietly, "We're here." There's more than just the memory of a coffin and a lack of air in his restlessness, but Parker and Eliot both know that's the most common thing that keeps him up. So they hold him without restraining him, comfort him without smothering him, support him without surrounding him, and somehow that seems to do the trick. Alec eventually falls asleep and sleeps soundly. Eliot and Parker watch over him on those nights, making sure that no harm comes to him. Those feel like they should be the easiest.

There's nights where Parker sits bolt upright in bed, panic in the lines of her body and the need to run in her muscles. Where Alec reaches for her, still mostly asleep and tugs her down against him, a solid presence in her fear that always makes her panic for a brief moment before she realizes who it is and she settles against him. Where Eliot cards his fingers through her loose hair and hums gently--not anything specific, just notes and idle key changes to keep her on her toes. Sometimes he runs through cons with her to get her mind calmed down enough from the visions of explosions or abandonment or lifts gone bad, whatever it is that has her so jittery. She never sleeps soundly, but she dozes, and Eliot watches over her, an anchor for the all-too-frequent times that she wakes. Those nights feel like they should be harder.

Then there's the nights where Eliot feels the jolt of adrenaline and readiness in his veins, forcing him awake, but keeping him still through years of practice. He'll lie there, visions of pain and injury and death behind his eyelids. Of guns and bombs and explosives; of knives and fists and feet; of pain and pain and more pain, pressing in on him from all sides. It doesn't quite choke him, but it's a damn close thing, and it takes all his training to slip out of bed relatively undetected and out into the kitchenette. He never cooks on those nights, knowing that it will wake the other two, but he'll often reach for a beer and make his way back into the bedroom to settle in the chair across the way from the bed and watch over the other two. A silent vigil that reminds him why he's never strayed from this path. Why he's still here after all the injuries and all the hurt and all the potential for more pain. Why he stays by their side through the good and the bad ( _for better or for worse_ ). Why he won't leave until he's forced to. He sits and he waits and he watches and it's at once the easiest and the hardest of these nights, because he doesn't dare wake them, doesn't dare show them the weakness he holds too close to his chest. When the dim light of dawn creeps over the horizon, he downs his lukewarm beer in three pulls and sets about making breakfast.

He knows the other two know. He just doesn't know why they never bring it up.

(He doesn't realize they're waiting for him to do it first.)

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my second bingo for Round Seven of H/C Bingo, with a drive-by beta from the always lovely [Tina](http://idoltina.tumblr.com/).
> 
> [Come hang out with me on tumblr!!](http://hollyandvice.tumblr.com/)


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